Empath

Kneeling down next to the hot street near the endless plains of grass the girls skirt was touching the ground, head looking down on a bird laying on the pavement, exhausted, it was so hot the bird wasnt able to continue flying. Reaching into her bag the girl took out a half-empty water bottle and pouring some of its content on the bird carefully.

“Aw poor little birdie, hope you are alright little buddy”

The bird was revelling in the little bits of water trickling over its feathers, flapping it wings as it covered so did the girl find herself overjoyed at seeing the birb finally take flight once again, raising a hand she was waving at the vanishing bird in the sky.

“bye bye little buddy!”

Getting up from the floor again the heat was still beating down on her, the streets and the few houses on the outskirts of the village, having just gotten off the bus back to her home she trotted down the path alongside a small rive, each side adorned with the small traditional housing, not many people where outside in the middle of the day when the sun was this strong, minus some errand runners and farm workers. Seeing these people drenched in sweat and heat Itami started feeling the same overbearing dryness they likely did.

Holding the top of her frilled shirt Itami was moving it back and forth to create a mild relieving draft as she entered the smaller side-street with her home right on the corner, walking into her families abode felt like a huge relieve, the heat from outside felt like it was vanishing right at the door, shoes flopping right at the efilade the girl was trotting up the stairs and into her room with a big goofy smile she fell onto her bed, knowing that summer vacation was just beginning.

Itami was taking a snooze right than and there, easily for an hour or so before the voice of her mothers rang up from downstairs to call her down for dinner, stretching her body on her bed Itami groggily got up and waddled down into the living room where her mother, father and sister where already beginning their meal, seeing her family already “hard at work” it didn’t take long for Itami to dig in just as happily.

“welcome back, Got your homework ready Itami?”

“yes dad”

“stay on top of your studies even during vacation”

“as always”

Her father was very strict about keeping up with studies, while her mother was incredibly kind and supportive with whatever she was doing. But Itami really felt the pressure of her dad wanting her to do good, thus after the meal was finished and her plates where taken care of Itami was going right back up into her room to really get down to it so the rest of her summer vacation was nothing but joyful mindless fun.

Itami doesn’t like studying as much as she woud like, but the words of her father and the possible subject of a reward from her mother where really pulling her through the subsequent days, every day she woke up, ate breakfast, getting asked by her father how she was doing, back to her room and cramming down hard, it was taking almost an entire week to get all the homework and assignments done, but she eventually did so, the moment the last word was written down Itami was letting out a very loud audible sigh of exhaustion.

After the euphoria of finishing this momentous task was done Itami was rewarding herself, it took weeks but Itami managed to convince her parents to get a small Laptop with internet access, technology in this remote rural village was fairly uncommon, internet was very slow here most of the time, but Itami was proud of her little pink potato, even more proud that she was able to learn to use it all by herself….in the span of several weeks again.

Opening the little potato on her desk Itami liked to live “dangerously” by watching some exciting videos, scrolling through YXXXXbe for several minutes Itami eventually landed on something quite exhilarating, a daring athlete in her eyes Itami watched several videos back to back until the person was hurting their elbow, at which Itami was making an audible wince and closing her eyes, she hated to see danger actually affect people.

Closing her laptop Itami was going down to get one last meal in before ending the day, finally she was ready to get out and have fun, both of her parents could see her happily humming away at the table, her father giving her a knowing smile while her mother was beaming like the sun that had set earlier today.

“thanks for the meal!”

“be careful from tomorrow on”

“of course, night dad!, night mom!”

Itami didn’t know how much she was gonna hit the hay today, all the work was done, the adrenaline was dissipating and she flopped onto her bed harder than a stone thrown into a lake, it took barely a few minutes for the girl to wander off into dreamland, Itami was not often dreaming so whenever it was happening she was remembering them quite vividly, this rare dream was having her in place of the girl reenacting the dangerous stunts that where happening in the videos, including the dangerous fall onto an elbow, at which point Itami woke up, shook awake by dangers in her dream.

“ouch….?”

Trying to get up from her bed Itami did notice that her elbow was kinda sore, turning her arm to check it out there was a small hint of a healed scratch, roughly a day or so old, Itami chalked this up to her having doubled down, sometimes literally on her desk this week, wiggling her arm around for a few moments she forced herself to push the ouchies aside and finally get this vacation started!

The first week of freedom was quite boring in what most people would consider, most of what Itami did was relaxing and lazing about outside, laying under trees, which was very relaxing for her, in the sun which she liked to do alone since she felt like she was melting if she did with others, near the river to dip her toes into the calming cool of the flowing water, ending the week off with watching another row of videos from the same girl she saw days ago.

She found those exhilarating every time, somewhere in between those video was another fall, whoever this girl is she got hurt an awful lot of times. With the next week starting up the next day Itami woke up and noticed yet another little scratch.

“Jeez I really need to watch out when im outside…”

Itami doesn’t spend time alone too often unless it is vacation, calling up some of her friends they planned out this week like it was the most important thing in the world, taking hikes to a nearby village to meet friends they rarely see, going to the local lake for some bathing in this hot weather and ending it with another planning phase for the next week, which was mostly consisting of getting ready for a single shopping trip to the big city, which was almost 2 hours away via speed bullet-trains that occasionally pass this village.

Another planning phase done Itami was opening her laptop again, only to find none of the videos she previously watched..the site didn’t turn up anything, not by video name or unloader, it had the girl a little saddened since she liked them, but she was soon moving into less dangerous pastures with cute dog videos.

Looking really seriously forward to a shopping trip she never ever does normally the week was going by awfully slow, every day felt like a month, the closer it got to friday the slower the days have become. Until it was finally time.

Itami was excited like a child in a toy-store, putting on her favourite lofty summer-dress, taking her cute pink handbag she gave both her mother and father a big ol hug before waddling outside and towards the train station, which was only 30 minutes away from her home, the heat has yet to die down form the start of summer, beating down on everybody who dared going outside, it wasnt really affecting Itami until she met up with her friends at the station, they where slightly sweating and eventually Itami was starting to as well.

Getting onto the bullet-train the 2 hour ride was passed with a lot of idle chitchat and some card games, when it entered the big cities station the group of 4 friends where all breathing in the concrete jungle smell like it was the freshest thing in the world. The sung of the summer was not letting up in this city either, it was only relieved by the occasional shadow of skyscrapers.

It all started with some simple window shopping, looking all of the cool and way to expensive stuff this city can offer. Itami during this really started to feel the heat beat down on her, so many people sweating and heated up, it was a bit of a stuffy atmosphere.

The long they where window-shopping the more Itami was getting affected by all this stuffiness, all the heated up people, the sun, it was overbearing just as the girl wanted to pay for some sticker and a key-chain for her laptop Itamis vision was getting blurry, the notes where falling out of her hand and two of her friends where quickly grabbing the girls shoulders to keep her upright.

Taking the notes her friends where paying for her instead and quickly bringing her to a seated ice cream vendor to cool off, with a chocolate-shake and a bowl of ice, one of her friends was waving some air into her face while Itami was getting a spoonful of ice.

“you alright there Iti?”

“I..dont know…why is it so hot outside…..”

“Its summer and all, but you never where THIS bad with heat”

“Probably some heat intolerance thing or something”

“Maybe..i just…need a moment to….”

Neither the wind blows nor the ice was really working that well, Itami was sweating like no tomorrow, her cheeks where red hot and her vision wasnt helping her at all. To the point their friend was getting less responsive.

“Quick, lets call 119!”

One of her friends took out their old phone and quickly dialled up the number, it was a very very long wait for minutes for an ambulance to arrive when their best friend was basically frying out here. When the vehicle arrived it took all but a few moments of checking the girl out to notice this to be quite a strong heatstroke, her friends where given the address to the hospital while Itami was brought into the vehicle.

Things where getting blurry for Itami, everything was moving, her head felt like it was exploding like a volcano, her body was moving, the sun was blinding her blurry vision for a moment before she was feeling quite light, coldness was starting to seep into her, things where floaty and as vision started to slowly return she noticed she was in a cold water bath.

“ugh….”

“Please stay still”

“hm?”

A nurse was watching over her, making sure nothing was going wrong and Itami followed all orders, Tami was staying in the cold water bath for a while longer before she was helped out of it and wrapped into cooling blankets and lifted onto a bed.

“You are gonna stay with us for a few days to make sure everything’s okay Miss Itami”

“Alright….”

Itami was a little sad still she “ruined” their one super expensive trip into the city, when her friends arrived and visited her room Itami was even moping a little, at herself for being so weak.

“Look, its fine, see, we even got you a “get well” present!”

Itami was perking up a little, while also trying to still mope about, seeing them hand her the stickers and keychain she wanted to buy it was impossible to hide her happiness any further. Her friends stayed as long as they could, talking and chitchatting, but visiting hour had to end eventually, with a lot of hugs and warm words her friends where travelling back to the rural village.

This night was unlike any other before, the rare dreams she had where never really nightmares, but this night was making her so restless she was waking up multiple times in the middle of the night, full of sweat, a racing heart and a growing headache.

What should have been a few days of checking vitals and letting Itami go soon after slowly turned into a confounding mystery on all sides, the headache was getting worse by the day, pain medications started to have no effect, Itami told she was still feeling the heat and the headache was killing her, yet no checkup was yielding any provable result.

Of course when the few days passed they weren’t letting her go with what they perceived as some kind of psychological problem. Things where only getting worse from here, Itami had to change rooms every now and again when the others in her room where getting out, making space for others.

Every new room was making Itamis situation worse, from supposed feeling of cuts, burns, internal problems, every room was increasing the girls psychological problems, problems that seem to be similar to very other person she was sharing rooms with.

Days where turning to weeks and Itamis family and friends where endlessly worried about the worsening conditions of her, every visit was worse than the last, Itami was looking more tattered, disgruntled and sometimes even angry, it really was a gamble what was gonna happen with her.

Yet, no doctor nurse of specialist brought it could perceive what was really wrong with her, Itamis family was getting desperate to find a solution that they where calling in a Séance in attempt to find the invisible problem.

Both of her parents and her friends havent seen Itami in many days by now, Itami got a room on her own in an attempt to relieve whatever was wrong with her, Her parent had gotten a notice that itami was being transferred to a specialized psychiatric institution since they couldn’t do much for this, causing the meeting to be relocated, the institution was on the outskirts of the same city near a forest.

Travelling there was taking over and hour longer than before, but everyone, including the Séance where going to visit her. The group arrived at the building and it was looking clean, a huge building in soft pink colors, the inside was feeling depressing, many people where locked in specialized room to safeguard them and others around.

The moment they stepped into this entrance the Séance was getting distressed to the point they refused to go any further, even refusing the pay they would have gotten. Family and friends venture forward through halls and op some stairs, lead by a guard and what looked to be a nurse.

“This way, we tried giving her the furthest room away from others as we could, based on the Hospital records we received..but it didn’t help, no therapy or treatment had any affect yet…”

On the highest floor most rooms where empty or just being built, at the end of the hallway lay the only lit room with a heavy duty door, halfway through the hall everyone could hear laughter, cries, painful screams, as if multiple people where in the room, yet the voice was clearly only their beloved Itami.

“Do be aware, we cannot alow direct contact, especially with family, we cant assure your safety, or hers. If you do not wish to continue you may wait here”

Such warnings where very worrying for Itamis friend, one of them couldn’t continue, they where scared, but everyone else persevered but instead of being brought in front of the windowed room they where lead around to the side where a one way wall lay, to look inside but not out.

Her mother held her mouth shut and quickly looked away into the shoulder of her husband, he was staring directly at the room with disbelieve and Itamis friends couldn’t hold back their tears.

Itami was unrecognizable, her hair was a short dirty mess, her face was almost shifting between emotions in nanoseconds, happy laughter with a massive grimace, to crying her heart out, to angry shouts. Padded walls, no door handles, no edges, nothing that could potentially make the girl hurt herself.

Itami was sitting still, jumping around, running back and forth, nothing she did was making sense, they where watching they malnourished pale daughter for minutes on end, trying to make sense of the situation. Unintelligble words and sentences where strung together between crying and laughter breaks, until the girl was staying still, head turning to the one way wall, bloodshot eyes staring almost through it to the group.

“I can feel ya!, Dont hide from me!, Give them to me!!”

Itami looked like she was about to charge right against the wall, the supposed nurse was quickly pressing a button, Itami was shivering and her hand had a slight spasm to it, halting her in her tracks.

“As you can see we cant allow any direct visitors, please follow me back outside”

The family was devastated, her friends couldn’t stop the tears flowing, her happy go lucky friend was no more, all that was left is this insane husk fo emotions halfway back in the hall the mixed emotions where quickly returning, one friend even holding their ears shut.

Visits continued for several months afterwards, itami was not getting a lick better, but also not getting worse, staying in this limbo of insanity, her friends will never forget the time they had together, her family leaving their daughters room untouched. Everyone hopes to get that fateful call that itami was getting better, but it never came.